title: Clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of young patients with breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim was to describe the clinicopathological features and prognosis of young patients with breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed the records of 1478 consecutive patients aged ≤50 years with first diagnosis of invasive breast cancer referred to surgery from January 1999 to March 2005. A total of 174 patients were aged <35 years (group I) and 1304 were aged 35-50 years (group II).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with patients of group II, patients of group I had a higher percentage of tumors classified as estrogen receptors (ER) negative, progesterone receptors (PR) negative, with a Ki-67 labeling index ≥20% of the cells. The 5-year survival of group I was 78.3% as compared with 84.2% for group II (P = 0.006).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with patients aged between 35 and 50 years, patients aged <35 years have a greater chance of having an endocrine-unresponsive tumor and a significantly poor prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Breast Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Harbin Medical University, 6 Baojian Road, Harbin 150040, China.
authors.forename: Ji-guang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Yong-dong
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Chun-hui
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yan-bo
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei-nan
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D012307:Risk Factors; D016387:Women's Health
chemical_list: D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen